Spinner Mason
Gavin Reginald "Spinner" Mason (b. 1987 or '88) is a Canadian student, who is currently enrolled at Degrassi Community School. Spinner suffers from ADHD, and takes Ritalin. His best friend is Jimmy Brooks. His mom works at Zellers, a Wal*Mart-like store in Canada and his dad died due to lung cancer. Based on Spinner's clothing, and the fact that he stole Jimmy's MP3 player, it is assumed Spinner is in the lower-middle class. He has an adoptive Chinese sister named Kendra. He was the former drummer for Downtown Sasquatch. He is portrayed by actor Shane Kippel Season 1 In the beginning of season one, Spinner took a liking for Terri and asked her for her geography notes as a means of asking her to the Starlight, Starbright Dance. Although Terri had a crush on Spinner as well, she told him she was not going to go to the dance. Ashley urged her to go, so Terri gives in and goes, however when a jealous Paige notices that Spinner likes Terri, she attempts to get Terri intoxicated for the dance. After Terri makes a fool of herself that night, Spinner's liking for Terri dissolves, which is revealed to Terri the next day at school. Spinner assisted his best friend Jimmy in buying condoms, and boycotted the cafeteria when he discovered an earwig in the food. Also, in an attempt to boost Jimmy's performance during a basketball game, he gave Jimmy one of his Ritalin pills, which he took to help his ADHD. However, the lack of medication caused Spinner's ADHD to go into overdrive during the game, and he eventually moons the student body. Both Jimmy and Spinner are penalized for their actions. Season 2 Spinner Spinner began to take an interest in Paige, but broke off with her when she canceled a date with him to hang out with Dean at a party. However, when he discovered that Dean had raped her at the party, he attacked Dean, and later asked her to the school dance. They began dating towards the end of season 2. Season 3 At the beginning of the school year, Paige became happy when she is assigned a acceptable locker. When Spinner asks Jimmy if he'd trade lockers with Paige to make her happy, Jimmy accuses Spinner of not having a back, and makes him admit this in front of their class in exchange for the coveted lock. When Spinner does this, Paige becomes embarrassed and angry that he made her sound like a controlling girlfriend. The couple reconcile at the end of the episode. After Marco walked out on a double date with Spinner, Spinner confronted him about his actions, and Marco admitted to Spinner that he was a guy. Spinner, unable to accept the idea of his friend's sex, refused to speak of the matter to Marco or any other friends. Spinner took his frustration out during a volleyball game when he intentionally spiked Marco in the stomach. He also wrote "Marco is a hag" on the bathroom wall, after which Jimmy defends Marco and takes his side of the dispute (also asking Spinner if he was going to write something about Jimmy being black). After Marco is gay bashed by a group of homophobic men, Spinner attempted to differentiate himself from the guys who hurt Marco, but Marco showed Spinner that he's just as bad as they are (probably causing Spinner to wish he had accepted Marco for who he was and his sexuality). Spinner and J.T. Yorke got into a battle of pranks when Spin thought that J.T. was trying to steal his girlfriend, Paige. The first prank resulted in Spinner putting a note that said "Roses are red, Violets are blue, My name is J.T. York, and I love you. P.S: Love the pants" under Mr. Raditch's door. In J.T.'s locker, there were pictures of Mr. Raditch. J.T. pantsd Spinner as revenge. They soon became friends though. By the end of the season, Spinner's views of Marco's sexuality changed, and he even helps him get together with Paige's big brother, Dylan, who is also homosexual. Season 4 In the season 4 opener, Spinner gets a new car which he has been saving up for since mid-season 3. Soon after this, Spinner's girlfriend Paige – who was taking Dean to court for raping her in season 2 of the series – learned that she lost her trial against Dean due to a lack of evidence. An enraged Paige then became inebriated at a party, got behind the wheel of Spinner's new car, and rams it into Dean's car, effectively damaging both vehicles. The next day, the police tracked down Spinner and Paige at school and question them about the damages on Dean's car. Spinner takes the blame for Paige's actions and gets arrested, however Paige became overwhelmed with guilt over the incident and later confesses to the crime. As punishment, Paige loses her license. She also promised Spinner to pay him for the damages of his car. At a car wash run by Degrassi students, Spinner and Manny play and joke around and realize that there's a spark between the two. Manny's ex-boyfriend Craig notices the closeness of Spinner and Manny, and a jealousy develops. Later when Spinner and friends Craig, Marco and Jimmy go to the movie theater where Paige worked, Spinner and Craig talked for a bit. Then they got into a brawl over Manny. Paige's manager called security and then proceeded to fire Paige. Paige breaks up with Spinner the following day, stating that Spinner wasn't fighting over her, he was fighting over Manny. This begins the saga of Paige versus Manny which plays out throughout most of season 4. During the tie-break round of the student trivia show, "Wrack Your Brain", Spinner, Jay, and Alex set up a prank involving yellow paint and feathers to fall on Rick in front of a televised audience. A disgruntled Rick then returned to Degrassi, armed with a handgun, intending to take revenge on the pranksters, unbeknownst to anyone. Rick's intentions are swayed when he encounters Paige and learns that most students did not find the prank funny in the slightest. When Toby, Emma and Jimmy voiced similar opinions, Rick decides not to go through with the shooting and goes to the washroom to clean himself up. While in a bathroom stall, Jay and Spinner enter the bathroom, notice that Rick is hiding, and loudly invent a story that involves Jimmy being the one to blame for the prank. A livid Rick, probably reminded of Judas Iscariot in the Bible, then returns to the hallways of Degrassi, gun in hand. He shoots Jimmy in the back, paralyzing him from the waist down. Rick is later shot with his own gun in a scuffle with Sean. When Jimmy returned to Degrassi in a wheelchair after the shooting, Spinner later reveals to him that Jay and himself planted the idea in Rick's head that Jimmy was responsible for the prank that evoked the school shooting. Jimmy immediately alienates Spinner and informs Degrassi's students of Spinner and Jay's actions. Spinner is then abandoned by all of his friends, and when he attempts to reconcile with Manny, is shunned away. Spinner then drinks away his sadness with Jay, and then he tries apologizing to Jimmy, drunka t his house. After he doesn't accept, Spinner tries driving away with Craig's car, but Jimmy stops him and tells Spinner that he's dead to him. In an attempt to do better, Spinner confesses his role in the prank to Principal Hatzilakos, which inevitably gets himself and Jay expelled from Degrassi. Weeks afterwards, Spinner tries apologizing to Ms. Hazilakos about his cause of the school shooting. Ms. Hatzilakous then decides to give him a chance to return to Degrassi, summer school. Spinner gets mad however, as he realizes that he'll have to repeat 11th grade and only get 2 credits from it, and declines her offer and storms off. When Spinner sees Jay messing up his bicycle, he comes up with the idea to mess up Degrassi to get revenge. So the two sneak in late at night and teepee the gymnasium and stack all the chairs in the hallway. They then take a look at the yearbooks and Spinner is shocked to discover that he appears in it three times despite the fact he was expelled. So he gets yellow fluid, sprays it on the yearbooks, and takes out a match to burn down the school. Jay shockingly stops him, as he points out they might end up going to jail for doing this, and they undo the things they did to the school. The next day, Spinner comes back to Degrassi again and decides to take Ms. Hatzilakos's offer. Spinner and Jay later got jobs as lunch servers when the movie, Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh?, was being filmed at Degrassi. When Jay doesn't show up one morning, Spinner finds somebody running out of the boiler room. Thinking it's Jay, he tackles him for shirking duties, but it turns out to be Craig, who was supposed to go to England during the summer. Craig told Spinner that he stayed to write the music for the movie and not tell anyone about his hiding, but after realizing the way he acted as he was off his meds, Spinner told Kevin Smith about this, who then later told Joey. And as a result, Joey and Spinner find Craig in the boiler room writing the music. Season 5 After Spinner was expelled from Degrassi in the previous season, he attempted to better himself by going to summer school courses. Because of his desire and motivation to return to Degrassi, Spinner is permitted to return and repeat the 11th grade. However, his friends still resent his past actions and he remains friendless. In Spinner's own words, he was an unwelcome person because of his association with the shooting. However, Darcy invited him into the Friendship Club, a Christian student organization run through the school. Spinner then became a born-again Christian and began dating Darcy, who knew about his involvement in Jimmy getting shot, but decided he was worthy of another chance. Because the Friendship Club (and inevitably Darcy) believed in virginity until marriage, Spinner was forced to hide his past with Manny from Darcy. Later, Jay attempts to manipulate Darcy into having sex with Spinner. However when Spinner learns of this, he beats Jay up and cuts him out of his life. In the season 4 finale, Craig seems to have forgiven Spinner, however Craig was off of his bipolar medication, and thus his rationale and judgment was poor at the time. In the opening of season 5, Craig still alienates Spinner. In the episode "I Against I," Spinner and Marco become friends again, but Linus, the leader of Friendship Club, convinces Spinner that Marco's Safer Sex campaign must be stopped because it goes against their beliefs. Spinner, lost for friends, loses Marco's friendship again because Spinner sided with Linus. Linus is later found out to be intolerant of homosexuals and is rejected by Spinner. At the end of the episode, Marco forgives Spinner again, realizing how lost he feels over the things in his life that have gone wrong. In "High Fidelity, Part Two," Spinner goes to Paige's house to tell her that he and Darcy are back together, but she reveals to him that she never blamed him for the Jimmy incident. Confused with the acceptance, Spinner and Paige have sex. The next night, Darcy finds this out through Spinner's text messages, which he sent to Marco for help. Heart-broken, Darcy breaks up with him. At the end of the episode, Jimmy apologizes to Spinner for blaming everything on him and their friendship is rekindled. Season 6 The season begins with Darcy and Spinner getting back together, as Darcy has gotten over what happened between Spinner and Paige. However, Darcy begins to sell racy pictures of herself through an online blog called My Room Page as a way to raise money for the Spirit Squad. When Spinner finds out, he and Darcy begin to fight over the pictures, which ends with Spinner dumping Darcy. Darcy later apologizes to Spinner and tells him that she hopes that they can still be friends. Spinner's renewed friendship with Jimmy is tested when the two begin selling t-shirts designed by Jimmy. Jimmy is unsure if they had made the right move, however the venture takes off and does surprisingly well in the beginning. Their store is later robbed and Spinner saves Jimmy from harm, but the robbery incident further cements Spinner and Jimmy's friendship. The two decide to keep the business going, and they hire Paige as their business manager. When Paige begins to see Spinner casually, Spinner realizes that he still has feelings for her and that he wants to be with her. When first telling her how he feels, he is told they could only be "friends with benefits" and Spinner leaves it at that. However, he later tells Paige that he needs all of her, or none at all. Paige and him eventually end their "friends with benefits" relationship and become mutual friends. Season 7 While Spinner is having brunch with Timmy and Ashley, he spots Toby getting bothered by Johnny. Spinner goes to break it up and tells Johnny to back off and quit acting stupid. Johnny acts like he is giving up, but tries to sucker punch Spinner. Spinner catches it before it makes contact with his face and bends Johnny's fist back. Johnny then backs off. Ms. Hatzilakos cautions him about breaking the zero-tolerance policy regarding violence and suggests he volunteer for the schools new peace group. He jokes it off, but he later stops another fight in the school yard between Liberty, Danny, and a Lakehurst student who taunted them about JT's death. Spinner notices a new girl from Lakehurst, Jane. He manages to get her attention after she sees him stop the bullying of Toby in the cafeteria. When Ms. Hatzilakos is lecturing Spinner on his violence, she spots Jane and asks if she is late to class again and starts talking about giving her detention. Spinner jumps in to help by saying Jane has volunteered for the peace committee as well. During the peace committee meeting they seem to hit if off, and later to go out to play pool at a pool hall. Things are going well until she pokes him in the abdomen while teasing him. Spinner runs out on the date in pain, unwilling to admit to her that he's been having health problems. The friendship between the two remains uncertain while Spinner deals with cancer and various violent fights he initiates between himself and some of the Lakehurst kids. However, after later admitting to Jane that he has cancer, the two reconcile. While working out and doing some licks, Spinner experiences a sharp pain in his groin. He believes he pulled a muscle and jokes with Jimmy about it, but also admits he's been having problems with his groin area lately. During the altercation in the school yard, Spinner has to back down because the pain starts up again. Jimmy urges him to get it checked out by a doctor. Spinner resists at first, but eventually goes in for tests and learns he has a lump in one of his testicles. While waiting for the test results, Spinner has another attack of pain while at the pool hall with Jane and leaves. Worried she wouldn't want him if he has a problem, he blows her off the next day. He later avoids the call from his doctor because his father died from cancer, but Jimmy convinces him to face the problem head on. At the doctor's, he learns that he has testicular cancer, but lucky for him, they have caught it early so his chances are good. Spinner does not handle the diagnosis well and begins acting out from his fear and anger. When Johnny and his friends start tormenting Toby again, Spinner walks over and tells them to quit it. When Johnny asks if Spinner is going to try and talk it out again, Spinner punches Johnny, knocking him to the ground. A video of the fight is posted to the Internet and soon all of Degrassi finds out about the fight. When Jimmy warns Spinner that his actions are straining the fledgling peace between the two schools, they end up arguing after Spinner makes a hurtful comment. Spinner tries to apologize to Johnny after the argument with Jimmy, but Johnny blows him off saying it was good publicity and says they should do it again. The oncologist recommends Spinner undergo surgery to remove his testicle, followed by chemotherapy. Spinner reluctantly agrees, then goes home and shaves his head into a Mohawk. Afterwards, he goes off to find Johnny for another fight, beating him until Johnny's crew pulls him off. At school the next day, Mr. Simpson warns him that if he continues fighting and having people post the videos online, the police will get involved. Spinner tries to talk to Jane, and ends up telling her about the cancer and that he must prove he is still a man with the fighting. Spinner then plans another staged fight with the Lakehurst boys. Jane goes to talk to Jimmy about Spinner's fight and that he might miss his operation, but Jimmy appears to blow her off by saying Spinner is an adult and can make his own decisions. Still, Jimmy goes to the fight site and talks to Spinner, reminding him that he can't beat the cancer with his fists. Spinner still does the fight, with he and Johnny getting fines and the cameraman charged. When Spinner comes back to school after the surgery, he is still limping, but able to reconcile with Jane. Spinner promises that from here on out, he'll only be fighting one thing: his cancer. Later, Spinner experiences the bad side effects to the chemotherapy. When Jay recommends marijuana, Spinner rejects the idea at first, but eventually becomes reliant on the drug to ease his nausea. He also begins to hang out with ex-girlfriend Darcy. However, after realizing his priorities, he gives up the drug and returns to Jane. Later, Spinner, ecstatic that his cancer is in remission, is determined to pass exams with Jimmy's help. But, when a great opportunity comes to Spinners band, a problem comes up. He doesn't know if he should stay in high school with Jane and Studz, or study hard with Jimmy, graduate high school, but have no real plans. Against the advice of Jimmy and Jane, Spinner decides to take the opportunity for his band, which ends up being a poor decision. He attempts to take his science exam without studying, but is saved midway through when Jimmy pulls the fire alarm, therefore postponing the exam for another four days. In the season finale, Spinner kept his promise to Jimmy and is able to walk across the stage for his diploma and graduated in the Class of 1200. Season 8 At the beginning of season 8, Spinner is still working at The Dot and is continuing his relationship with Jane. Because of financial issues at home, Holly J. is hired to work at The Dot as well, and after a rocky beginning, the two bond when Holly J. opens up about her regrets in the past. Spinner has decided to become a police officer for his career, but that idea is shattered when his application for police college is rejected. However, when telling Jane the news, he lies and tells her he got in, a lie he continued for quite some time. Jane eventually hears the truth, however, through Holly J. Him and Jay both get drunk and he goes to Jane's house to apologize to her but she doesn't accept it because he was drunk. Later he goes to Jane's speech about being the only girl on the football team but he faked another guys identity to get into the banquet. There he proposes to Jane but she declines it. he later goes to the dance thanks to Jay and Holly J. there the two make up and go over their plans for the future. Relationships *Paige Michalchuk: **First Relationship ***Start Up: "How Soon Is Now?" (220) ***Broke Up: "Islands in the Stream" (406) ****Reason: Paige finds Spinner fighting with Craig over Manny. **Second Relationship ***Start Up: "Love My Way" (616) ***Broke Up: "Love My Way" (616) ****Reason: Paige chose Jesse over Spinner. *Manny Santos **Start Up: "Bark At The Moon" (413) **Broke Up: "Eye of the Tiger" (416) ***Reason: Manny finds out of Spinner responsible for the shooting *Darcy Edwards **First Relationship ***Start Up: "Foolin'" (504) ***Broke Up: "High Fidelity, Part 1" (518) ****Reason: Darcy couldn't accept Spinner's past **Second Relationship ***Start Up: "High Fidelity, Part 2" (519) ***Broke Up: "High Fidelity, Part 2" (519) ****Reason: Shortly after Darcy took Spinner back, Spinner had sex with Paige and Darcy found out. **Third Relationship ***Start Up: "Here Comes Your Man" (601) ***Broke Up: "Eyes Without a Face, Part 2" (606) ****Reason: Darcy takes risqué photos of herself and shows them online and Spinner disagrees with this. *Jane Vaughn ***Start Up: "Pass The Dutchie" Mason, Spinner